Algiers, 10 May (AKI) - Western workers in North Africa and tourists are going to be the prime targets of suicide attacks, Abu Musab Abdel Wudud, the leader of the Al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb said in a video released on Islamist websites Thursday - the first by the Algerian terrorist since the new group was formed in January from the Salafite Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC). "We ask Muslims to avoid sites where there are foreigners, diplomats, businessmen or tourists," he says in the 19-minute-long video.
Announcing the intensification of suicide bomb attacks, Abdel Wudud outlines his group's strategy to strike in particular touristic venues in North Africa. "Starting from now we have decided to increase suicide operations as a strategic choice in the fight between us and our enemy and we have therefore ordered all the leaders of our brigades to start recruiting martyrs," he also says.
| Wudud won't be 'ploding himself personally, you understand, he'll be training minions to do that. He's too important to put himself on the line. |
In the video, the terror leader gives Muslims indications on how to avoid terror attacks in a possible response to recent criticism from former GSPC leaders who have criticized the strategy of the new organization which targets civilian as well as military objectives.
Violent attacks have been increasing in Algeria since the main Islamist rebel group, GSPC, changed its name to the al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb in January, after pledging allegiance to the international terror network last September. The Algiers 11 April bombings, the first in the capital's centre in over ten years, are believed to be the country's first suicide attacks and were claimed by the new terror group.
Abdel Wudud's message is believed to have been filmed after the attack somewhere in the Algerian mountains, judging by the background. In it, the terror leader also accuses the Arab League and other regional organizations of being allied with the West against Arabs and Muslims and pays his respects to Osama bin Laden, his second in command Ayman al-Zawahiri, as well as terror leaders and militants in Afghanistan, Iraq, Chechnya and Somalia. |